


Forces Between Us

by Laurasauras



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 10:36:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18364307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurasauras/pseuds/Laurasauras
Summary: Bro thinks Vriska is just another girl in the self defence class he's running as part of his parole. She's not.





	Forces Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> This sat in my drafts for ages with just the concept of the pairing. They're my two favourite "bad guys" so I wanted to write them together for that alone. I'm glad it turned out sweet!

She gets dropped off every day at the same time, but her mom drives off the second the girl flings the door shut, never makes sure she actually enters the building, so it's not until Bro's fifth week working off his debt to society that he meets her. She only shows up when the alternative is boredom, which is the worst possible thing for Vriska to endure. Pain, she laughs at. Boredom could kill her.

Bro is five minutes in to his class, guiding the girls through a warmup stretch. He doesn't turn when she bursts through the door, but half the girls do. 

'Gracing us with your presence, Serket?' one of the girls asks.

'I only come for you, Meenah,' she replies, and with that the class is officially disrupted, most of the girls already taking bets on the winner of the fight and the few actually decent ones getting between the two rivals.

Bro strides into the middle and grabs the new girl by the upper arm.

'Keep stretching,' he commands the class, before dragging her outside. 

Vriska squirms against his grasp, but having skipped all the self defence classes that she's supposed to be attending in an effort to cure her of anti-social behaviour, she can't shake his grip.

'The fuck you think you're doing, fuckin' up my class like that?' he demands.

Vriska looks up at him defiantly and bares her teeth. He's not affected. 

'I'm _in_ your class,' she hisses. 

'I've never seen you in my life.'

'I have better things to do with my time.'

Bro glares at her for a moment, remembers how Piexes greeted her and pulls out his phone, deciding truant is more likely than liar in this case. 

'Name?'

'Serket.'

'You gonna give me trouble if I let you in?'

She narrows her eyes and squares her hips in what Bro has to admit is a good strong foundation, something that would keep her steady if he chose to try and knock her over.

'I'm enrolled,' she says. 'I'm at risk. Who do you think you are?'

'I'm the asshole in charge of pairing you up when it comes to sparring and I think Piexes could beat me in an arm-wrestle, wanna tell me why I shouldn't be doin' some matchmaking?'

She doesn't give him an answer, but the fact that he's in control of something she doesn't want him to be gives him enough reassurance to sigh and jerk his head in the direction of the classroom. She flicks her long hair over her shoulder and leads the way, the swagger in her hips designed to draw the eye.

Bro looks, but then glares at the roof in exasperation. He sees girls wrestling with each other almost every single day and he's never failed to keep professional detachment. He can ignore obvious bait like this.

He enters the room a step behind her and snaps his fingers to make eye contact with Meenah before she can cause shit on his watch. 

'You cool?' he asks.

'As an iceberg,' she says, and after a quick glare at Vriska she seems to settle.

Bro takes his place at the front of the room and claps his hands together to get the girls' attention. Surrounded by the rest of the class, Vriska looks even more out of place, her short dress at odds with the more sensible leggings and workout gear that the others are wearing. She doesn't suffer a shortage of confidence as a result, though.

'Alright ladies. Most of you are warmed up, those who didn't take advantage are about to suffer for it, but if someone comes at you in an alley they ain't givin' you time to stretch anyway. I want you in pairs and I want you in a different pair than last session.'

The girls move automatically, as if they'd already decided their positions before Bro had arrived, but Vriska stays still with her arms crossed. She's already done the maths, apparently. There's an odd number.

Bro gestures for her to come up to the front of the class and she waits three beats, just long enough that Bro is starting to wonder how the fuck he's supposed to teach someone who can't respect the simplest of orders, and then she moves. 

'These are your buddies for today. We're gonna get you nice and tired and vulnerable and then we're gonna play. I'm putting two minutes on the timer, the person who does the most push-ups in that time gets to be the stalker. Stand upright until I say. Ready?'

There's general nods of agreement and a whole lot of sizing up going on across the class. Bro waits, because half the fun of this is starting the time when they're not on guard, and stares at Vriska. He's not sure if he should let her win, he could see how well she does stalking him. He usually watches this activity, and he might be able to do that easier if he's not the seeker. 

'Okay ...' he says, and a couple of girls duck slightly as if they just caught themselves from dropping. He grins at them. It's a five second penalty if they drop early. He pauses just a bit longer, feeling the energy that group anticipation gives the room before ... 'Go!'

Bro drops his stop watch to hang around his head and drops to his hands and knees before getting into position on his toes. To his surprise, Vriska matches him for speed, but that just means she has sharp reflexes, not that she's strong. She's on her toes too, though Bro allows the girls to use their knees if they need to. Not that she's been around to know that.

He starts moving at a steady pace. Two minutes is a long time in the world of exercise, and the girls who treated it like a sprint their first week have all learned that it's very easy to overtake someone who's lying on the floor holding their biceps. Vriska doesn't make that mistake, but she is moving slightly faster than him. She probably needs to, because Bro isn't going to tire out in two minutes and he's more than capable of adjusting to a sprint pace in the last 10 seconds.

She's doing about 4 push-ups to Bro's 3, with surprisingly good technique, using the rhythm of her drop to get her back up, but there's no way she can keep it up for a full two minutes. He needs to decide now whether he's going to win or not; she's going to burn out and if he wants to lose he should slow down now to give her a better lead.

But then he sees her mark. 

It's on the back of her shoulder, the strap of her dress had been covering it but it's shifted thanks to her movements, and Bro can't be sure, it's on a bad angle and it looks like she's buried it with a larger tattoo design, but it looks a helluva lot like his.

He buried his as well. Ink doesn't stick to them, bullshit magic fuckery, but he started drawing add-ons to disguise where it began and where it ended back when he was a kid. Ain't nobody out there with a full back soulmark so he's safe. 

He always assumed he'd need to be on guard against it. He's never looked too hard at anyone's marks, didn't want to know, but he can't ignore this. And he can't wait until after the game to know for sure. He has to be the one to stalk her.

He speeds up, and it actually makes it easier, having a reason to do this. He just has to know. What are the fucking chances that he'd meet her here. Where he can't run away without violating his agreement, where he can't do anything. 

Whatever, he doesn't have to think about that. He doesn't have to think about anything. He just needs to get through this next minute.

He ends up overshooting. By a lot. He goes from needing to win, to realising he's just made a fucking fool out of a girl who hasn't been showing up to this program in the first place. The timer beeps and Vriska collapses onto the floor, panting. She didn't even lose by much.

Bro stands up, and swallows any look of regret a weaker man might have shown. He went too far. But it's done now.

He shakes out his arms and recovers his composure with long, patient breaths. The rest of the class is slower getting to their feet, and Vriska doesn't look like she's bothering yet. He stops himself from finding the angular pattern on her shoulder and looks across the room instead.

'Prey have got two minutes to hide themselves. Stalkers win if they make physical contact in the next 15. Prey win if they make visual contact with the stalkers before then.' He presses down on his stopwatch. 'Go.'

He honestly wasn't thinking that Vriska was going to move, but somehow she forces herself up and out of the room before any of the other girls who lost the competition. Bro stares after her.

There's a list of reasons for his heart to be pounding. He's just done high intensity exercise. He's been public speaking. There are certain crimes of his that have not been uncovered and if they are then his parole will absolutely be over and much as he wants out of this damn community centre, he does not want into jail.

But he isn't actually a guy who enjoys deluding himself. This fucking soulmate thing! He hates it, he hates the idea that some mystical tattoo is going to tell him an intrinsic truth about himself and it isn't even going to be an apple on his ass. He hates the idea that someone or something thinks it knows him and his soul better than he does. 

He's not destined to be with anyone, especially not a girl like this.

The thing about what he's doing here is that it's not actually a bad parole requirement. He has a code. The judge knew that. And she thought the best thing to do would be to show that he was capable of following it without, you know, the law-breaking part of it. So, she chucked him at a bunch of vulnerable girls and hoped that protective instinct would come out and make him stick around. 

It had. And the girls were learning shit, learning to watch their fucking backs, learning how to watch other people's backs. Something like modern chivalry, the strong looking out for the weak. Bro had always looked up to the idea of knights even if he was nowhere near good enough to be one.

He follows the stalkers out, and loses them quickly. He doesn't know this girl, he doesn't know how she thinks, but he knows how girls her age think. She's out of breath, her arms and legs are probably killing her, she can't have gone far. But she's got a clever look about her, so she'll have thought of a place to hide. 

It's a complete fluke that he catches a look out a window as he's scaling a pillar up to the second level of the community centre and sees her sprinting away. 

What the fuck.

He drops down the pillar and gets out the door. It's not against the rules to leave the premises, not that she could have known that. He starts to run after her on silent feet. He hates the way it feels like his muscles have been replaced with rusty gears, but she's managing fine. How?

He darts against a building when he sees her slow, just in time to avoid her seeing him as she looks around. He needs to catch up with her, he needs to look at her mark when there's no one around to call him out on being so focused on it.

He manages to get close, he's good at being quiet and he's got parkour on his side (it's not cheating, any of the stalkers are allowed to use parkour if they have the ability), and he's starting to regret the way that he's basically repressed the memory of what his own tattoo looks like, he can't be sure that it's right.

He's too busy staring at her shoulder, so confident in his ability to be silent and hidden that he doesn't realise that she's aware of his presence until she's turned around in a whirl of dye-brittle hair and swept him off his feet. 

Uh. Tripped him the fuck over. With a sweeping motion to the ankles.

She grins down at him as she steps on his shoulder, effectively keeping him down. Well, almost effectively. He could throw her off like this, it'd be more sensible if she was to put her foot across his throat. 

Actually, this is fine. He's not going to coach her on how to keep him down better, she's got the situation in hand fine. He can see enough of her leg as it is. He looks at her face instead.

'Some teacher you are!' she says. 'After that display in there I was sure you weren't gonna go easy on me. What are you, some kinda bitch?'

Bro sighs and puts his hands under his head, letting his elbows jut out as if this is exactly where he wants to be. 

'You're not tired,' he notes.

'Ha! Like I was going to try and overtake you once you'd made it clear you were playing to win! I faked it so I had more energy, obviously!'

'May I get up?' Bro asks, his politeness somewhat marred by the sarcasm he's forcing into every word.

Vriska looks him up and down, and he forces himself to stay neutral. He's not used to being in this position if he hasn't paid someone to put him in it, it's doing shit to his mind that she can knock him down and look at him like he's nothing. He wants to fight back desperately, but he's not allowed. He's responsible for her.

'Yeah, whatever,' she says, taking her foot away. Bro watches her leg just to see where it's landing, not out of anything else. 'I can't believe I bothered showing up, what a waste of time.'

Bro sits up, but he doesn't stand. Maybe she'll be more open to talking if she feels in control. She's almost got the same energy as a cheesy villain monologuing, and he'd hate it if he wasn't hanging on her every word. 

He just needs more information about her, that's all. He needs to know who she is so he can avoid her. 

'Why _did_ you come?' he asks. 'I've been running this program for five weeks now.'

She crosses her arms and rocks her weight onto her hip. She's so over-dramatic, Bro doesn't know what it says about him that that works for him.

'Nothing else to do,' she says. 'There's lunch after. Meenah said the instructor was hot. Take your pick!'

Bro rolls his eyes. He's not going to fall for such an obvious diversion. She'd have done better insulting him.

'And none of those were relevant the last five weeks?'

She doesn't answer, she just flicks her hair over her shoulder and walks away. Bro gets lightly to his feet and falls into step next to her, only a little bit because he thinks it'll annoy her. He wonders if she could knock him down if he was on his guard, she's so much smaller than him.

They walk back to the community centre with Bro doing his level best not to stare at her back in any obvious way, hands shoved deep in his pockets where she can't read them as a threat. He doesn't think that someone who wasn't already instinctively on her guard all the time could turn it on to that degree, especially considering all the classes she's missed. He might be tempted to spook her, just a bit, but he doesn't really want that.

'He catch ya?' Meenah asks immediately, getting in Vriska's face.

'As if,' Vriska says. 

Meenah looks up at Bro for confirmation and he shrugs lazily. She doesn't seem to know what to make of that, but Vriska doesn't give her time to respond. She shoves past so she can get back to the spot in the room she was in before.

Bro takes them through disarming each other as if they’re attackers with knives for 15 minutes, watching with something like pride as girls who were timid before show how much more certain their movements have become. 

There’s lunch after the cooldown, like Vriska said. These kids are at risk, they’re the ones who have dropped out of school and don’t seem interested in finding the kind of work you put on a resume, the ones who would probably be out shoplifting if they didn’t get this outlet. The free food helps too.

Bro sidles up to Meenah where she’s sitting alone and drops a packaged cookie into her lap. She finds the $20 immediately and tucks it in her pocket without comment, but her posture opens up slightly. 

‘You know Serket,’ Bro says.

‘Sure do,’ Meenah says. ‘We went to Phoenix together.’

‘Same year?’

Meenah grins at him like she’s a shark.

‘She’s legal, yeah.’

‘Fuck off,’ Bro says.

‘A’right,’ Meenah says, making to stand up. 

‘Fuck off,’ Bro says again, his tone exasperated. 

Meenah sits and bites into the cookie. She has this look on her face like she thinks it’s an innocent expression. Bro likes Meenah a lot, she’s a real piece of work.

‘Tell me what you’d tell a guy if a guy was to pay you for information about her.’

‘I’d say he could do better,’ she says. ‘She’s a psycho with both mommy and daddy issues and she brought a tarantula into school once, sat it on her head like she didn’t give a shit.’

‘Cool,’ Bro says, staring over at where Vriska is sitting by herself.

‘She stabbed a girl once, but she was like 10 so they didn’t press charges, said she didn’t know what she was doing.’

‘Did she?’

‘Absolutely.’

Well shit, maybe there’s something to this soulmate thing after all.

Bro feels like his centre of gravity has shifted monumentally, like instead of it being firmly beneath his feet it’s located across the room. He feels the beginnings of those obsessions that get in his head and deprive him of sleep until his skin itches and he can’t even bear water in his mouth and he passes out. He doesn’t trust himself at all to let this go.

Ironically, he could just go to his supervisor and say he has a conflict of interest, he thinks his soulmate is in his class and he’s in a position of authority, he needs a different posting. But he likes this place, he doesn’t want to leave and the uncertainty of what other community service he could get stuck with puts him right on edge.

Plus he doesn’t like running from things.

He bumps fists with Meenah, who follows up with a low five that tickles along his palm, and walks over to Vriska. There’s no point playing subtle, he paid enough for answers, not discretion. The whole class’ll know he was fishing for information soon enough, he may as well beat the rumour mill.

‘Serket, you wanna come to my office, get some paperwork done?’ he asks.

Vriska looks up at him with a suspicious expression, but nods and stands up. He tries to follow her, but she definitely doesn’t want him behind her so he can’t stare at her shoulder again. Meenah sticks her fingers in her mouth and wolf whistles and several of the other girls laugh. Neither Bro nor Vriska respond.

It’s not really Bro’s office. It’s what they call a hot desk, a place where anyone with an employee ID can log into the desktop and do the minimal bullshit paperwork they have to do. The government wants to know the programs are working, wants to know who is showing up and who is returning and what made them do that.

Bro sits in the desk chair and jostles the mouse. Vriska leans into the wall beside the desk instead of sitting in front of it. It makes Bro feel hyper-aware of her presence (as if he wasn’t already) like she’s crossed some imaginary boundary.

‘You in the system?’ Bro asks.

‘Should be,’ Vriska says. ‘I’m enrolled in a few things, turned up for a couple of them.’

‘Serket spelled how it sounds?’

‘If you’re literate.’

Bro pulls up the spreadsheet he needs to and finds her where he’d moved her to the bottom of his class-list after her second no-show. Yeah, there’s enough info in here that she’s had to have attended a few things. 

‘So, I was thinking,’ Vriska says, and Bro looks up at her automatically like some kind of chump who gives his attention free and easy. ‘It’d really look better for me if you could just say that I’d been coming to your classes.’

‘Sure would,’ Bro says, looking back at the monitor.

‘I know you're probably a man of honour …’

Bro snorts and enters in Vriska's hours and a couple of notes about her participation. It’s the kind of bullshit he’s obliged to put in to show that the girls have engaged and so has he. He can practically do it without thinking by now, which is useful because Vriska’s now sitting on his desk instead of leaning against the wall and he has one response to being interested and it is to stoically pretend he is not interested.

‘I was wondering if that honour might be flexible.’

Bro’s fingers still on his keyboard. He looks up at Vriska who is closer than he’d realised. Her ass is nearly touching his mouse. Right.

‘What’s got you wantin’ to flex my honour?’

‘Resume’s lookin’ light,’ Vriska shrugs. ‘Sure would like to make nice with some employers. Sell like I’m reliable, trying to improve myself, being a part of the community, you know what I’m saying?’

‘Sure. Like what the other girls have actually been doin’.’

‘Exactly!’ Vriska says with a smile.

Bro leans back in his chair and regards her. 

‘You got a tattoo on your back.’

‘And?’ Vriska says. 

Bro thinks she might pale a bit. He shrugs, mimicking the movement she made when she was trying to pass off something she cared a lot about as not a big deal. Vriska recovers impressively.

‘You want a closer look?’ she says, placing her hand on the edge of the desk and leaning towards him.

Well shit. He really does. She’s sure _offering_. His office has blinds …

Jesus Christ. No. He’s better than this. (No, he’s really not.)

‘Vriska.’ 

Vriska pauses. 

‘Shit, I don’t know your name! That’s hilarious!’ 

She laughs, and Bro forces himself to keep control over whatever the fuck his lips think they’re doing, trying to smile along as if it’s remotely funny that a girl who was propositioning him doesn’t know his name.

‘Bro,’ he says.

‘That’s not a name.’

‘Alright, _Vriska_.’

She looks at him in this unusual way that’s almost a glare, but might be a squint. Like she’s sizing him up. He at once feels like he can’t possibly measure up and like he’d like to spend all day being looked at by her.

‘Will you change the records to make it look like I’ve been here?’

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘’Cause you haven’t been here.’

She slips off the desk and goes back to leaning against the wall. Bro leans forward in his chair before he can think better of it.

‘You too noble to screw around then?’ she asks.

Bro grins and shakes his head slowly.

‘Sure you’re not going to change my records?’

This isn’t his space. He wants to steal her. God damn, that’s a scary impulse. If he invites her someplace, that feels pretty forward. Since when is he wary of being forward?

He stands up and pulls his shirt up and over his head. He hears Vriska say, ‘Woah,’ and senses her step backwards. He turns around so that his back is facing her.

‘See anythin’ familiar? ‘Cause it’s drivin’ me fuckin’ crazy not knowing.’

He jumps a bit when he feels her fingers on his back. Cold fingers. Girls always have cold fingers. Never made him want to hold their hands and warm them up before. 

‘You hid it,’ she accuses.

‘Right, so if you know which one it is then you’re not fucking with me.’

Her fingers run down his side and over his ribs and he flinches away.

‘Sorry,’ he mutters, ‘ticklish.’

She laughs in surprise at that and he feels the absurd need to defend the fact that he’s ticklish. What, does she think it’s not manly of him? He’s tried to cure it! He palms his face in an effort to get rid of all his stupid thoughts.

‘What’s this one?’ she asks, tracing the bottom left of his back. 

Bro glances over his shoulder, even though he doesn’t need to. She looks different when she’s not _performing_. 

‘Decartes—uh, fuck, I sound like an asshole. Y’ever hear about the “brain in a jar” theory? Like _The Matrix_? Like everything we’re experiencing could just all be a simulation, our brains … like shit, we dream, right? Builds on some bullshit Plato said … Look I was very impressed with my own intelligence when I was a kid, that story hit hard.’

‘The crow?’

‘Raven,’ Bro corrects. ‘He’s cool.’

‘Such an illuminating story,’ Vriska mutters. 

Her fingers are travelling over almost every mark he’s given himself. They’ve somehow avoided the one he was born with precisely. Somehow. Like it’s a mystery.

Finally, she rests her palm over it, hiding it from view. 

‘I didn’t want this,’ she says. ‘I don’t need a better half.’

‘Neither.’

‘I’m not … nice.’

‘Neither.’

She steps away and Bro turns. He pulls his shirt back on and adjusts his hat properly. They stare at each other warily. 

‘You know, a real soulmate of mine would change my records,’ she says.

‘No he wouldn’t,’ Bro says, letting himself smile just a bit. ‘I ought’a know.’

‘Fine,’ she says, rolling her eyes. She’s smiling a little bit too. It suits her. ‘Well, the least you could do is spot me some cash, seeing as I won’t be getting hired anyplace without you helping me out.’

‘Think you’ll find the least I could do is nothin’.’

‘Wanna get a drink?’

The computer said that she’s 20, but Bro ain’t a bouncer and he can’t be bothered finding anything wrong with that. 

‘Alright,’ he says. 

He holds his hand out to her and wiggles his fingers, eyebrow raised ironically. She smiles wryly, like it’s all a joke to her as well. She takes his hand and leads him out of the community centre. He’s happy to let her lead for a bit. 

His centre of gravity is still shifted, but he’s holding onto it now. He feels anchored in a way that should be terrifying. His heart is beating hot and heavy under his skin, but it’s not in a way that makes him want to run. It’s in a way that makes him want to jump.

‘Meenah said you brought a tarantula into school,’ Bro says as she pulls him down the street and towards the kind of bar where he might actually be able to afford to treat her as well as cover his own tab.

‘Yeah, so,’ Vriska says.

‘You still have it? I like spiders.’

Vriska pauses and looks up at Bro. He stops as well.

‘If you’re bullshitting me, I’ll stab you in the eye.’

He holds his hands up without letting go of hers, sees how ridiculous that is and then drops them both. He’s not letting go of her hand. She stops glaring at him and looks almost vulnerable.

‘Spiders are cool, I guess,’ she says, casually.

They start walking again, a bit slower. Vriska’s no longer marching them towards their destination. 

‘I don’t want you to just waltz into my life and fix everything,’ Vriska says.

‘I’m not capable of doing that,’ Bro says. ‘I have a fucking brain in a jar tattooed on my back, I’m not qualified to be improving anyone’s life.’

‘I’m not going to fix your life either!’

‘You come at me with a laser or whatever to remove that bastard and I’ll stab you in the eye.’

Vriska stops them again.

‘What _now_?’ Bro asks.

Vriska grabs him by the shirt collar and pulls him down until he’s low enough for her to kiss. His balance is thrown off by the abruptness of her movement and the fact that they’re still holding hands, but he recovers and wraps his free arm around her waist.

It’s an awful kiss. Vriska’s teeth first knock into Bro’s lip hard enough that he thinks it’s bleeding, then into his teeth, their respective glasses are a fucking disaster, he’s half-panicking and she’s clearly doing it out of some kind of obligation. 

But then they soften and start to work together. Bro leans down on his own, so Vriska can release his shirt and gentle her hand to his neck. She licks her lips when they break slightly apart and when they touch again she’s softer. She’s so soft Bro almost wants to rip her into pieces or consume her, he wants her safe in the most violent way he’s ever wanted anything.

They separate shakily.

‘Okay,’ Vriska says. ‘Just wanted to …’

Bro kisses her again. He can’t seem to let go of her hand even though he knows his palm is sweaty and that can’t be nice.

Two hours and four beers apiece later, Vriska and Bro commit their first crime together. It’s almost sweet.


End file.
